OPEN RECORDS GUIDES

The federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and state open records law equivalents are valuable tools for government transparency, enabling the public to seek documents related to state and federally-funded activities. However, these laws are frequently misused to attack scientists who work on politically contentious topics such as climate change, pollution, and biomedicine in attempts to distort or undermine their research.

The misuse of open records laws damages the scientific endeavor by diverting researchers’ time, threatening their privacy, and chilling candid scientific discussions – while also adding nothing to the scientific pursuit as legitimate scientific research is, by design, already vetted via peer review and then publicly published. By harming the scientific endeavor and interfering with scientific progress, the abuse of open records laws also harms human and environmental health.

“Research Protections in State Open Records Laws: An Analysis and Ranking” is the first in-depth analysis of the existing protections for scientific records, and their applications, in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report explains each state’s treatment of scientific records and assigns the state a letter grade from A to F accordingly.

Just two states earned an A: Delaware and Pennsylvania. Most states received a C or D; the four states that earned an F have no open records protections for science.

Legal protections for scientific research materials vary widely in the United States, leaving scientists and universities vulnerable to malicious open records requests and endangering the scientific endeavor.

The report is intended to help scientists and attorneys understand the best way to manage and respond to a FOIA inquiry, and encourage policymakers to consider the special issues of scientific transparency and enact policies that protect these important materials.

Note: This is the fourth edition of the report, published in June 2023. Please contact us if you would like a copy of any of the previous editions.